Memorial Day BBQ marinades that are friendly to your mouth, wallet

We are firing up the grills, and getting ready to barbecue. You may be planning to do that this Memorial Day weekend. And you can save money by making your own marinades.

If you are hosting a big gathering for the Memorial Day weekend, most of us don't have a big budget to splurge on fancy cuts of meat. So a little prep with items you already have in your kitchen will make you an all-star cook this weekend.

With a few titles under his belt, including Houston Live Stock Show & Rodeo Cook Off champion, Randy Pauly, pit master with Holy Cow Cookers, knows how to create crowd-pleasing food. So Pauly is sharing a couple of his favorite Memorial Day marinades.

His first marinade is called Clean Out the Fridge Hamburgers.

"Quality is not going to be compromised at all. We are going to kick these up a notch where you are going to think you are at one of the top steak houses, ordering a burger. And you are cleaning out your fridge," he said.

Pauly literally cleaned out the fridge. From stir fry sauce to mustard and salad dressing, he will combine the condiments to create his burger marinade.

"Make sure you don't add to many salty things," Pauly said.

Once you have combined all your sauces, stir it up and taste it before you add your meat to the marinade.

The marinade goes back into a Ziploc, then Pauly grabs the ground beef and adds a cup of marinade to the beef. To take these burgers up another notch, he adds cheese and premium cut bacon to his burgers.

"And still have it very, very affordable," Pauly said.

That's because instead of cheese slices, he is using crumbles. And instead of bacon slices, he's adding bacon pieces.

"Now you have a deluxe, deluxe, well-seasoned burger on a budget," Pauly said.

His next recipe is the Tequila Lime Marinade, which is great for chicken.